Tapestry Weaving

My work is inspired by nature and how we interact with and perceive our surroundings. I’m interested in evoking moods, capturing a moment in time or history with color, light and of course, texture. I want the work to tell a story to the viewer giving them just enough to connect the dots - to set a mood with fragments and symbols that evoke a place or time. I work with landscapes and figurative work including tapestry, and mixed media. I am enthralled with and never bored painting with yarn.

I find my work in other mediums feeds my creativity which makes the tapestry work more exciting as only a few drawings or paintings out of hundreds will ever make it to my loom. I worked in the textile industry for years as a Jacquard Designer and always find it ironic when I sit down at my tapestry loom to weave with the most basic weave structure in the world.

The Black Bird Chronicles.....an ongoing series of small scale tapestries.

This piece was woven for the American Tapestry Alliances small format tapestry show, Small Tapestry International 5: Crossroads.Which Way Crow?When given the theme “Crossroads” I began to think about important decisions in ones life and how change is such an important part of that. The Crow often symbolizes that change is coming and is often referred to as a spiritual animal that can be associated with life mysteries and magic, a sign of luck or perhaps a trickster. Similarly it is often seen as a symbol of transformation - something that I feel happens when you are indeed at a Crossroads in your life. The Show will be held at two venues:UNT on the Square, University of North Texas, 109 North Elm St. Denton, Texas 76201 August 17-September 30, 2017.Second Venue:Handforth Gallery Tacoma Public Library, 1102 Tacoma Ave. South, Tacoma, Washington 98402 November 15- December 30, 2017.

The second tapestry in the Black Bird Chronicles Series. I wove this piece for the Kate Derum Small Tapestry Exhibition.

"The Australian Tapestry Workshop Kate Derum Award was established to honor Kate's memory and her significant contribution to tapestry as former deputy director and a weaver. The award celebrates Kate as an accomplished artist, respected teacher, avid supporter of the ATW and ambassador for Australian tapestry."

I'm honored to be selected as a finalist in the exhibition. An exhibition of all the finalists will take place at the Australian Tapestry Workshop from Wednesday 9 August to Friday 29 September 2017.Australian Tapestry Workshop 262-266 Park Street, South Melbourne, Victoria, 3205, Australia.

Landscape Tapestry...in progress

In progress a landscape tapestry from a mixed media painting that I blew up. Here are some in progress pics as it grows.

DL Rigter Landscape tapestry weaving in progress.

DL Rigter Landscape tapestry weaving in progress.

DL Rigter Landscape tapestry weaving in progress.

The Watercolor Tapestries.....in progress

I'm working on a series of tapestries that are being woven from my watercolor paintings. Of course this is my interpretation of my painting as I never follow a tapestry cartoon verbatim. The following are in progress pics. As it grows I'll be adding more photos. This woven at a fine sett of 16 epi. so it's growing slowly.

DL Rigter Landscape tapestry weaving in progress.

​Mixed Media Tapestry

Well the name sort of says it all. They are tapestries that have other materials other than yarn woven into them or applied to the surface. Very experimental work and I'm really enjoying the freedom of it all. Here is the first small tapestry worked in this manner. More pics coming. There is also another series within this category. So I guess that would be a subcategory. :) Lots of experimentation going on here. More mixed media tapestry coming soon.....stay tuned.

Small 4"x 4" Tapestries....

A series of small 4" x 4" landscape and figurative landscape tapestries that is ongoing....